Vocal Chords: Iarla Ó Lionáird and Linda Buckley In Conversation Trailer Dec 3 2017

Oct 04, 2017, 09:01 AM

Composer Linda Buckley comes from the Old Head of Kinsale, Cork and is currently based in Dublin. Her music draws on a sonic landscape of natural and made sounds and she frequently uses the human voice in her work, often singing herself in wordless cadences.

Linda writes for both electronic and acoustic forces. The diverse instrumentations of her work include Javanese Gamelan, choir, multi-channel tape, prepared piano and orchestra.

Her work has been described as “exquisite” (Gramophone) "strange and beautiful" (Boston Globe), “glacially majestic” (RTÉ Ten) with “an exciting body of work that marks her out as a leading figure in the younger generation of Irish composers working in the medium” (Journal of Music). Her work has been performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Sinfoniker Orchestra, Fidelio Trio, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Trio Scordatura and at international festivals including Bang on a Can at MassMoCA, Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam and Seoul International Computer Music Festival.

Linda studied Music at University College Cork and Music and Media Technologies at Trinity College Dublin. She holds a Ph.D in Composition from Trinity College, where she also lectures, and was RTÉ lyric fm Composer in Residence 2011/13. She spent 2016-2017 based in New York as a Fulbright Scholar working on found sound in cross genre composition. From January 2018 Linda will take up a new post as Lecturer in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in Glasgow.

One of her recent compositions is a a song cycle, Ó Íochtar Mara, https://www.cmc.ie/music/o-iochtar-mara written for Iarla O’ Lionáird, and performed by Crash Ensemble at Sounds from a Safe Harbour in September 2017. Linda and Iarla share the story and poem behind this piece of work in this Vocal Chords documentary.

In this trailer for the full documentary Iarla asks Linda about how singing is part of the way she composes music and how growing up within a family of nine, often singing together, shaped her.

Vocal Chords In Conversation with Linda Buckley goes out on RTÉ Lyric fm on Sunday 6pm December 3 2017.

Music in the trailer is Corpus Christi - featuring the voices of both Linda and her sister Irene Buckley You can hear more of her work on Linda's Soundcloud account - https://soundcloud.com/linda-buckley

Visit Linda's page on the Contemporary Music Centre's website - https://www.cmc.ie/composers/linda-buckley

Or visit Linda's own website - http://www.lindabuckley.org/